The present invention relates to a printer, and to a print head unit for use with the printer.
Normally printers are provided with a print head unit to effect the printing. In order to obtain good quality printing it is preferable for the various printing processing parameters, such as the head drive voltage, for example, to be adjusted to match the characteristics of the print head unit.
However, print head unit characteristics vary according to the manufacturing history of the print head unit concerned. Thus, to achieve good quality printing with each printer, there has been a need for a technology that enables such good quality printing to be attained by setting printing processing parameters that are appropriate to the characteristics of the print head unit used with each individual printer.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a technology that enables good quality printing to be attained in accordance with the individual characteristics of each printer.
To attain at least part of the above objects, the print head unit according to the present invention is provided with head identification information in a readable form that is predetermined based on the variations in print head unit characteristics arising in the course of manufacturing the print head unit. The printer executes printing processing in accordance with the printing processing parameters determined on the basis of the head identification information.
Here, xe2x80x9cprint head unitxe2x80x9d denotes a print head that is detachably attached to a printer as one unit. The printer can set appropriate printing processing parameters based on the head identification information with which the print head unit is equipped in a readable form, and executes the printing processing in accordance with the parameters thus set. As such, good quality can be performed in line with the characteristics of the print head unit used on each printer.
The head identification information may be stored in a non-volatile memory provided on the print head unit. Such an arrangement allows the printing processing parameters to be readily set by reading out the head identification information from the non-volatile memory.
It may also be arranged so that the service history of the print head unit can be written to the non-volatile memory. This allows the service life of the print head unit to be judged based on the service history.
The head identification information may be displayed on the surface of the print head unit.
The above printer may be provided with a print mode memory for storing a plurality of dot printing modes that have substantially equal printing speeds at the same resolution, where the dot printing mode defines the scanning method used during printing effected by forming dots, and the head identification information may also include printing mode information for specifying a preferable dot printing mode from among the plurality of dot printing modes.
Such an arrangement makes it possible to readily select a dot printing mode, based on the print head unit characteristics, that enables good quality printing to be effected.
With respect to printers having a plurality of print head units, each print head unit may be provided with the head identification information in a readable form. Such an arrangement enables the preferred printing processing parameters to be set that are based on the individual characteristics of each of the print head units.
The above plurality of dot printing modes can be arranged so that with respect to at least one print resolution, the printing modes are divided into a plurality of printing mode groups having mutually different printing speeds, wherein the plurality of printing mode groups pertaining to said at least one print resolution are arranged so that the number of dot printing modes included in a group increases as its printing speed decreases.
With respect to each individual such printer, a preferable dot printing mode to achieve high quality may be selected from the plurality of dot printing modes stored in the print mode memory, and mode selection information indicating the preferable dot printing mode can be set beforehand in a mode selection information setting section. This makes it possible to use a preferable dot printing mode that is best suited for each printer. When printing is performed at the same resolution at a relatively lower printing speed, the difference in quality between dot printing modes tends to become greater. However, since the printer described above is provided with a dot printing mode in which, with respect to at least one print resolution, the slower the printing speed becomes, the larger number of the dot recording modes are provided, high quality printing can be more easily achieved at relatively low printing speeds.
The mode selection information setting section may have mode selection data that specifies one dot printing mode for each printing mode groups having a different combination of print resolution and printing speed.
Such an arrangement allows a preferable dot printing mode to be specified independently for each of the plurality of printing mode groups, thereby enabling high print quality to be readily obtained with each printing mode group.
The invention can be realized in various forms such as a printer, a printing method, a print head unit and so forth.